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HOW OUR BUSINESS CONSULTING SERVICE CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS
The Secret Shopper Business Consulting Services specialises in providing solutions for improving your sales volume, customer service, customer retention, referral business, staff training methods, sales processes, staff recruitment processes and numerous other areas.
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We have a great deal of experience and have worked with hundreds of successful businesses during our over 18 years in business.
As most of us are aware creating a new customer is massively more expensive than retaining a current customer, yet many companies’ budgets are disproportionately directed to new customer creation, rather than focusing a little more attention on retaining and growing their current customer base and working on referral word of mouth business.
Referral or word of mouth business is virtually free, and you have the benefit of knowing that a friend, colleague, or family member has already told the potential customer you are worth considering.
The Secret Shopper Business Consulting Services can assist your team with advice on numerous customer service-related topics; this has been our business for the last 18 years.
Below is an example of a mistake we see many companies making all the time.
A company books a TV and Radio advertising campaign, at a cost of $110k. The campaign is super successful and brings in hundreds of new customers that have seen on the TV how friendly, helpful and happy your staff are, and what great deals you have on offer.
Unfortunately, when your potential customers arrive at your stores, for whatever reason, this is not the experience the customers are provided with, and worse still, every time they see or hear an advert about your store, it will bring back that memory.
The sensible thing to do here would be, before launching an expensive advertising campaign, to carry out a full Secret Shopper program to identify any current customer service issues, and your current staff's ability to handle a large volume of customers, then to work on strategies, staff training programs and staff recruitment programs to iron out any problems before commencing your expensive media campaign.
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Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any assistance with:
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Increasing your profitability
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Customer service issues
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Customer retention
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Creating referral business
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Staff training methods
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Structuring your sales processes
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Staff recruitment processes
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Increasing your sales volume, and numerous other areas.
WHY THE SECRET SHOPPER OFFERS A BIGGER RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT
Here is why your current Secret Shopper / Mystery Shopping company could be costing you money in lost potential sales, and lulling you into a false sense of security.
Firstly, if you are only carrying out KPI tick box type surveys, you are definitely not seeing the big picture. We have carried out hundreds of KPI style surveys where the team member surveyed ticked almost every KPI box; however, the narrative or summation we provide, which is the Secret Shoppers opportunity to comment from their own perspective on the service experience they received during their visit to the store was quite frankly a train wreck.
In short, you can tick all the KPI’s and a customer can still have a very poor overall experience.
Let me explain further; a service experience is like building a friendship, the best salespeople have the following qualities:
The ability to listen
A great salesperson needs to satisfy a client’s needs fully. The only way to find out what these needs are is to listen to what each prospective customer is saying. The best salespeople aren’t always talking.
A salesperson should have empathy
Having empathy with your potential customer allows a salesperson to understand exactly why a customer came to you in the first place, they have a need, and the product you can supply offers a solution to that need. By understanding how your customer feels, empathising with their situation, and finding a great solution to their needs may well create a lifelong customer.
Confidence
Believing in the product or service you are selling is essential. If you show a customer that you are confident that the product you are showing them is the best possible product for their needs, you will increase your chances of a sale exponentially.
Enthusiasm
A successful salesperson is always motivated. They are always ready to make a sale at any given moment and continually looking for possibilities.
Communications skills
There’s no way around having excellent verbal skills if you’re trying to sell goods and services to your valued customers — salespeople who excel here know how to stay away from jargon and hard to understand concepts. Most customers want a product to be explained to them in easy to understand and relatable terms, and generally, if they want more detailed information, they will ask.
These are just a few of the qualities a great salesperson should poses; there are many more.
If your sales team are not on point with their sales pitch delivery, then your competitors will be rubbing their hands together with glee.
How many times have you left a store without purchasing after receiving terrible service, or worse, being ignored completely?
Are you truly getting the best ROI from your current Mystery Shopping provider?
If you do not look at your business from the outside looking in, there is every chance you are not maximising your opportunities
Most Mystery Shopping programs are based around a perfect scenario; a customer walks into your store and shows an interest in purchasing a product. The Secret Shopper / Mystery Shopper then goes through a sales process, then makes their excuses for not purchasing and leaves the store. You then receive a basic survey outlining their experience in KPI tick box questions and very short comments.
We know it’s tempting to go for the lowest quote when looking to engage a Mystery Shopping company, especially when you have multiple outlets; however, you might be wasting your money.
We know KPI’s are important and tell you that your team are following a set process, however, isn’t it more important to hear from the customer about what they felt about the process in a written narrative or summation.
After all, KPI’s are irrelevant if the customer leaves your store having received unsatisfactory service from a sales team member who was disinterested and just going through the motions.
It has been my experience in the last 18 years that many companies put way too much emphasis on the cost of an individual Secret Shopper visit and too little emphasis on the potential ROI of a top-quality program. The cost of which may only be an extra $20 or $30 per survey.
A top quality KPI survey which gives the Secret Shopper the ability to express their feelings about their customer experience will give your operations and training teams the ability to fully understand what is going wrong and to address the issues directly with the individual or individuals involved.
On the opposite side of this, it also allows you to reward team members who are doing a great job.
Adding a narrative to a Secret Shopper survey does add a great deal of work for the Secret Shopper company, as this written information does need to be validated and spell checked, this is why many companies want to keep the written information provided to a minimum.
We look at Secret Shopper surveys like cars, it is possible to buy a car that will get you from A to B for a couple of thousand dollars, but most of us choose to spend a little more to ensure reliability and comfort.
Most of us have a check-up from time to time at the dentist or doctor, Mystery Shopping is just a health check for your front-line sales staff.
If your business has multiple outlets, you will almost definitely benefit from employing a high-quality Secret Shopper / Mystery Shopping company.
When you are looking for a Secret Shopper / Mystery Shopping company, can the companies you have shortlisted provide the services you need?
Let me expand on this a little further and take into account the full picture; let's look at your business from a customer’s point of view, from the outside looking into your business.
There are many ways a prospective customer finds your business; these can include, but are not limited to
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Walk-in customers who happen to be passing your business.
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A potential customer who finds your business through a web search.
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A potential customer who telephones your business first to enquire about a product or service.
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A potential customer who emails your business first to enquire about a product or service.
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A potential customer who has been referred to your business by a friend, colleague, or family member.
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A potential customer who finds your business through a third-party website. (A business directory website etc.)
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Google my business.
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Google Adwords.
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A potential customer who has been motivated to visit your business by a TV or other media advertising campaign.
If a customer calls or emails your business, how are these forms of communication handled, is the potential customer lost at this point?
We have a great deal of experience here, as we have carried out many Secret Shops by both telephone and email.
One of the issues we have encountered with telephone Secret Shops is the staff member who takes the call does not treat the communication as a real opportunity to do business, generally the salesperson supply’s the relevant information, then ends the call, without trying to build any rapport with the customer, or trying to make an appointment with the caller to visit the store, or obtain their contact details for follow-up.
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We have also noticed that email inquiries are often not replied to, and if a reply is sent, the content does not cover all the questions asked and is often poorly written giving a very bad first impression.
Part of the consultancy side of our business will help you drill down on these issues and fix them for good.
Is the information provided about your business in business listing websites current and up to date, with the correct details, such as your business address, phone number and email contact address?
Do you have a Google my business page for each outlet and are the details and opening hours clearly outlined and updated regularly, including holidays, etc?
Are your Google Adwords campaigns optimised for the best results at the lowest cost? Have you analysed target keywords?
Is your website modern, up to date, does it offer informative information, is new content regularly added, how does it compare to your competitors, is it visually inviting, does it load quickly, where does it appear on Google for the top keywords related to your business model etc?
Generally, if you are not in the first few Google results for a target keyword your website traffic dramatically drops off. We can offer advice on techniques to improve the position of your website.
If websites look tired and old fashioned this can impact greatly on your business, your online presence is very important in today’s competitive marketplace.
There are many ways a potential customer can find your business, but when they do find you, are they then encouraged to visit your business, and most importantly, when they arrive, are they treated correctly?
The Secret Shopper Mystery Shopping Services has been in business for over 15 years, and during that time, we have helped our valued clients to achieve service excellence.
We offer a number of services, including Secret Shopping / Mystery Shopping and a business consultancy service for all business sizes. Let us work out an individual plan for your business.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need further information, we will be more than happy to explain any of the above information in more detail. Let us help your business go from strength to strength.
We operate Australia wide and specialise in the following areas, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sunshine Coast, Wollongong, Townsville, Cairns, Toowoomba, Bendigo, Tasmania, Canberra – Queanbeyan, Central Coast, Geelong, Ballarat, Albury – Wodonga, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bunbury, Coffs Harbour, Bundaberg, Wagga Wagga, Hervey Bay, Mildura – Wentworth, Shepparton – Mooroopna, Port Macquarie, Gladstone – Tannum Sands, Mount Gambier, Lismore and Nelson Bay.
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